The Cullens and the Swans read Twilight (Adopted from KMJ1998)
by jessica.dangerfield.9
Summary: The four books are left on the Cullens' doorstep. What happens now?
1. The Task

Bella was sitting in the Cullen's living room, pretending to watch a movie while cuddling up on the lounge to her boyfriend and true love Edward, with the other Cullen family members about them—Rosalie was playing a soothing classical tune on Edward's grand piano and adding her own subtle embellishments, Emmett and Jasper were playing round after round of chess challenging each other, Carlisle and Esme were taking advantage of 'chaperoning' the young couple by snuggling together on an adjacent lounge and enjoying the serenity of the afternoon, and Alice was busying herself by sitting at the coffee table in front of the newest Cullen couple and filling a sketch pad with clothing designs for a very unsuspecting Bella. Her father, Police Chief Charlie Swan, walked into the house with a package in his arms. The Chief had left work early and when he didn't find her in their living room with Edward, he suspected it was time to visit his daughter and her serious beau in mentioned beau's own home. His entrance garnered strange yet welcoming looks from the relaxed family—all prior activities abandoned for the time being. The seven vampires hadn't paid attention to their enhanced senses that had signalled his approaching presence. The package's delivery had also, possibly worryingly, gone unnoticed.

Bella was the first to mention the curious object. "Hey Dad. What's that?" She hadn't thought there would be reason for him to find her before she returned home. _Oh well._

"Hey Bells. I don't know what it is; I found it on the front steps."

Carlisle reluctantly split from his wife's side to relieve the human guest of the awkward, burdensome box. Alice saw what Carlisle desired in time to remove her design-filled sketch pad and other utensils from the coffee table she still sat at. Grateful, Carlisle set the box down and opened. From it, he removed a letter and four books. With the books stacked on the coffee table, Carlisle passed the box to Alice to temporarily discard. The letter, he opened and read aloud.

 **Dear Cullens and Swans,**

 **You have to read the books in this order:** _ **Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn**_ **. One book is about the past, while the other three are about the future. It's about the Cullens and Swans. I hope that you change your mind about everything after reading these books. Enjoy.**

 **S.M.**

They all quietly found a comfortable spot in the living room, surrounding the coffee table. Suspicion and fear coursed through all present. As well as confusion and worry—especially experienced by Charlie.

Alice spoke first. "Okay, who will start reading Twilight?"

Esme responded; "Why not Bella or Carlisle?"

Family patriarch looked at his newest child—beloved young and klutzy Bella. His gentle, searching eyes met hers. "Do you want to start reading it or would you rather I began the task?"

Bella was not in the mood for dealing with the close attention she passionately loathed. She would never dare let anyone else carry her burdens, though this situation felt worryingly different to her. "You can if you want."

Carlisle understood from her heartbeat's strange pattern that she desired to be relieved of the task. He smiled and nodded at his most precious daughter then retrieved _Twilight_ from the top of the small pile of books. Carlisle returned to his previous spot beside his adoring and loveable wife. He flipped the book to read its back cover. Carlisle schooled his face into his doctor's expression when he had to inform a patient of a bad prognosis or diagnosis. He was the father and head of his family; he had to remain calm and rational. He began.

 **About three things I was absolutely positive.**

Charlie, already scared though he'd never admit it, was unnerved just by the first sentence. This _had_ to be Bella's voice narrating, it was recognizable—he had read her best essays that Renée had sent copies of because she was _that_ proud of her little, now _not_ -so-little, girl. He sent Bella a questioning look. She seemed just as unnerved while she appeared to be trying to disappear in _His_ embrace. That was not a good sign. Charlie found himself especially confronted by the power of the protective look emanating from Edward's eyes as Bella's emotional safety took priority over her physical safety in the young man's mind.

 **First, Edward was a vampire.**

Charlie had _known_ he wouldn't like the direction this task was going. He carefully studied his daughter's beau. Some teenager so smitten with his baby could never be a dangerous fantastical... immortal, possibly centuries-old... creature.

 **Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.**

Again, Charlie carefully studied the accused vampire with Bella. _Nope_ , he decided for now. There was _no way_ Charlie could believe that the love-sick boy would be an evil creature that wanted to kill the girl he so clearly loved and adored... despite the Phoenix issue of last month. Bella still sported a black boot brace rather than still being in a cast.

 **And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.**

 _Oh great_ , Charlie swore mentally. He knew Bella had feelings for the young Cullen boy, but he hadn't been prepared to hear she was that crazy about him. In the current moment, Charlie considered the intensity of Bella's emotions for Edward more of a threat to Bella's wellbeing than the accusation of Edward being a vampire lusting after her blood. He could do more damage by turning her emotions against her than just being only a mortal danger.


	2. Preface

Carlisle opened _Twilight_. His father had been a minister, so he could not resist reading the quote from Genesis.

 **But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:17.**

Before comments could breakout, Carlisle turned the page to read _Twilight_ 's _Preface_.

 **I'd never given much thought to how I would die—**

 _Who would?_ Charlie thought.

 _Bella would_ , Edward sadly sighed mentally in response to Charlie's unspoken rhetorical question.

 **though I'd had reason enough in the last few months—but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this**.

All the Cullens needed little else to know that Bella was the storyteller and this first sentence referred to her experience with James... How could it not? Besides, the blurb on the back gave it all away in the first place.

"So. The book actually _is_ Bella's baby," Emmett both teased his baby sister and vocalised the obvious observation.

Edward brought his lips to Bella's ear—feeling Charlie's confused yet overprotective stare or was it a glare? on him—and whispered; "Good. Now I know what you are thinking."

Bella blushed, a rosy red skin shade a sign of the increased blood flow.

Edward's throat burned at the memory of her blood rushing into him, yet he controlled himself with relative ease—a level of difficulty and pain remained, but after his thirst for his love had nearly made him kill her, his desire to quench that thirst had all but been eliminated from the equation. He loved Bella and needed her too much to allow his nature to take her and her beautiful soul from this world.

Carlisle continued reading—the Cullens may have had all eternity to read the books presented, but the Swans didn't. Besides, as the attentive father Carlisle was, he could tell that Jasper was going to need to hunt each day Charlie's scent fused into their home on top of Bella's... and Rosalie's patience and human façade would wear away with each extra sentence that gave more attention to Bella—she was already furious that the 'V' word had already been used in relation to the vampires in the room; namely Edward.

 **I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.**

 _I'll kill this dude when I get my hands on him!_ Charlie fumed mentally before wondering _when the hell had Bella even been hunted._

"What hunter, Bella?"

"Later, Dad," Bella shushed, already exhausted—snuggling with Edward would do that to her.

Edward continued to hide in Bella's hair and held her close; reassuring her and calming himself—they were both feeling too much at one time.

Jasper was struggling for his own control he couldn't use his power to spread Esme and Carlisle's calm throughout the gathering. Besides, he felt a sadistic pleasure and having ripped James apart with his siblings' aid—he had given Bella a chance to put herself in the danger he desired to keep her from as badly as Edward did. Jasper knew the threat he posed to Bella rivalled and surpassed Edward's, but the precious girl had earned a special place in his heart for her bravery and self-sacrifice, her love for his brother. He had never felt a human possess such powerful love before, and he was grateful to her for the changes in Edward that occurred because it. He doubted that even these books could change his view of her level of trustworthiness—they were written in her viewpoint, but they weren't written by her. Alice could see all that would be revealed in these books. But she couldn't see if or how events would change because of reading them—and it frustrated her as intensely as Bella's teasing insights into her mind wound Edward up.

 **Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.**

Jasper had never liked Bella more than then when her reasoning was confirmed. Rosalie, on the other hand, had never despised Bella more. Rosalie blamed Bella's existence then stupidity for causing the situation in the first place. Edward hissed a warning at his vain, self-obsessed sister in response to her arrogant thoughts. Esme let the head-butting slide—now was not the time to deal with a slipping of manners Charlie hadn't noticed; she was much too endeared to her eldest son's girlfriend. _They_ _have_ _to be mates_ , she smiled. Edward rolled his eyes—he didn't believe a human could be a vampire's mate, let alone a girl as lovely as Bella being the mate of someone as dark as himself.

 **I knew if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now.**

Rosalie snorted too quietly for the humans to hear—she believed Bella had never been so dumb, stating something that obvious.

"Fix your thoughts, Rosalie, or I'll fix them for you!" growled Edward, just as silently, yet his tone was so icy it was deadly.

The tension was obvious to Charlie and Bella could tell that something was amiss because she could feel Edward's chest vibrating with his animalistic sounds. Charlie didn't know what to make of the tension his daughter made in the good doctor's family. Bella just despised the fact that her existence caused Rosalie to hate her.

"Not in front of Chief Swan," Carlisle chastised Edward and Rosalie, guessing it to be futile when it came to the daughter in question.

 **But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.**

Esme and Carlisle had never dreamed of Edward finding a women who would love him so much as to be willing to die in his place. Bella was the best thing to have ever happened to their eldest son and they loved her even more for her blindness as too how good she was for him, how completely he _adored_ her. She was a part of their family, no matter what.

 **The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.**

Charlie was furious that Bella hadn't told him someone had tried to kill her. Rosalie couldn't hide the thought that she wished James had succeeded. Edward was disgusted at Rosalie and despised himself for splitting from Bella in the first place; she wouldn't have escaped _his_ supervision. Bella wished, for far from the first time, that Edward had let the venom spread. She said as much. Again.

Bella met her boyfriend's eyes beseechingly. "Edward, really. Why didn't you let the change happen?" _We wouldn't be here right now if the change had occurred_. It would have been a clean break for both of her parents and herself, and she would be with Edward forever. Now she was left even more awkwardly clumsy and her parents were stressing even more about we than they should have too—she was reasonably independent for her age and it was only a few months until her eighteenth birthday. She dreaded the thirteenth of September, each second brought her closer to being older than Edward and closer to death.

"You _know_ why," Edward growled softly, pained. It showed in his now shadowed gold eyes.

"I was already on the verge of death," she rebutted, eyes narrowed.

"No. You weren't."

 _Tell her the truth, Edward_ , Carlisle instructed. _She should know_.

Bella echoed Carlisle's sentiment. "Yes, I was. And there's more to it, isn't there?"

Edward groaned to himself. They'd barely finished page one, and he was arguing with her over the change again. "Fine. You would have bled to death or had a heart attack if he hadn't bitten you."

"That's not all of it," Bella reiterated, again echoing Carlisle's thoughts.

Edward looked into Bella's innocent yet wise and welcoming brown eyes that were currently aflame with determination. Pain and anger rippled through him. _Mine!_ "If I'd let his venom spread through you, you would be linked to him for eternity—you already _are_ too linked to him for life."

Bella was completely lost.

Edward traced the teeth marks that scarred his love's skin. "Bella, we're possessive creatures. You don't just bear _**a**_ vampire bite, you wear the scar of _**his**_ teeth and venom. You would be _**his**_ creature, even if he was destroyed as he was. I could _not_ allow that to happen. You losing your humanity is one thing, but to have him leave his mark while ripping it from you..." Edward shook his head while waves of pure hate rippled through him. "I could not sit by and do nothing. You're _mine_ to protect, and I'll do all I can to ensure you stay in perfect condition."

Bella groaned before snuggling back into Edward in resignation. This cause was one she'd raise again later.

Carlisle wrapped up his conversation with Charlie to ask who would read chapter one.


End file.
